How to Prepare Furniture for Painting
best way to clean pieces is to use Denatured Alcohol mixed with water (50/50 ratio). A scotch bright pad works great to clean off all that gunk. Denatured alcohol works great as a cleaning agent when you’re planning to use water based paint (chalk paint, milk paint, latex paint, and acrylic paint are all water based). If I am using an oil-based paint (often spray paint is oil based), I use mineral spirits (but don’t mix with water!) to clean up the piece.